Light + Process + Unison + Deep Listening: An Interview with Dancers Lauren Simpson and Galen Rogers about Celestial Real Estate

Lauren Simpson. Photo by Joey Carter.

Light + Process + Unison + Deep Listening:
An Interview with Dancers Lauren Simpson and Galen Rogers
about Celestial Real Estate

By Jill Randall

April 9-11, 2021 at the Generator Space in Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, April 9 @ 10:10 A.M. & 2:17 P.M.
Saturday, April 10 @ 10:11A.M. & 2:16 P.M. & 7:04 P.M.
Sunday, April 11 @ 10:11 A.M.

Reserve tickets here

I interviewed Lauren and Galen together on Zoom a few days ago as they prepare for this week’s performances. It has been a pleasure documenting Lauren’s artmaking and process over the past 5 years on Life as a Modern Dancer.

Jill Randall (JR): Let’s start with the elevator pitch! Tell me about Celestial Real Estate.

Galen Rogers: When I describe it to folks back home in the Bay Area, I describe it as a one on one dance residency where Lauren has invited a painter, costume designer, and musician to take part in a sort of exquisite corpse style collaboration, where we are each contributing one by one sequentially. Part of the inspiration has been the shape of sunlight in this gallery. Dance is last; there is a lot of input already. Our job is to bring it all together.

Lauren Simpson: Celestial Real Estate is an installation-to-performance project taking place over 6 weeks. The project deals with questions around ownership and proprietorship of intangible things, like sunlight. Sunlight – we cannot own or contain. We can access or use or leverage it.

I have done a bit of research on people who try to own celestial bodies – naming stars or owning land on planets. What would it mean to own the sun? A woman in Spain got the deed to own the sun and sold parcels of land on ebay! It took me down a line of thinking about ownership in general. And the ridiculous nature of that!

Galen was talking about the collaboration. This is brand new to me. Usually as a choreographer I have a vision and then hire designers to fulfill the vision. Born of COVID and some logistical reasons, we started with the painter in the space, and I gave a prompt. Then the costume designer responded, and then the musician responded. Now Galen and I are last to come in. Much has been decided.

JR: What was the seed of the project originally?

Lauren: I attribute much of the seed to Galen. He had been talking about sunlight. He was here in November, working on a project with me with mirrors and artificial light. That was the seed, or it got me thinking more about light and the behavior of light.

This gallery has big windows. I was observing the way the sun moves through the space. The windows are south easterly facing. Morning has nice light – then it moves to the wall, another wall, and the floor. I kept thinking down the line from what Galen introduced me to.

JR: How did the two of you start working together? I know you two through different contexts. Did you dance together in the Bay Area?

Galen: I had seen Lauren’s work with Jenny Stulberg a few times, and took a class at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, maybe the Winter Dance intensive. I learned a piece of choreography and was super stoked. Then I auditioned for Lauren, the only audition I have ever done! Lauren expressed interest in working together, but it took a few years.

Then Lauren moved from the Bay Area to Omaha. But there has been a freedom during this pandemic, now teaching remotely. So I could actually come to Omaha and we could work together finally.

I got here on March 31st and will stay through the 11th.

JR: Did you do any work or exploration remotely over the past few months?

Lauren: No, it’s just been planning for working together. This is an immersive style, shifting and condensing the way of working. When Galen is here, every day there is a rehearsal for a couple of hours.

There will be a public showing and culmination, which is exciting. There is an appetite for people to see things now and to gather. There’s not more pressure, but there is a place we are going…sharing what we are doing.

JR: Why is the event free? Is it durational or with a beginning/middle/end? Are people popping in and out?

Lauren: People will sign up to come at a particular time. I think people will want to stick around the space and take selfies of themselves in the space!

This program is supported by Amplify Arts, a local arts org. They are handling all of the ticketing. All of the events in this space are free. People can make suggested donations though to support the project, sliding scale.

JR: How are you funding the project?

Lauren: There are three funding sources:

-A grant this past year from Amplify Arts, the Drew Billings Performing Artist Support Grant. I used it for Moving Truck, and am using the remaining funds on Celestial Real Estate.

-I will receive a stipend for this residency at the gallery to support the collaborating artists.

-And then I am still an Artist in Residence through ODC in San Francisco.

That is the institutional support.

JR: How would the two of you describe the movement, since I don’t get to see it? How will you be moving or might be moving?

Galen: To me, the movement is methodical, very abstract, careful. We talked a little about the chaos of life for Lauren, and everyone in this time. The insides and outsides are all scrambled up. But moving together in unison is a way of organizing and descrambling our insides. It is all in unison, pretty much.

Nothing super wild. It’s contained.

Lauren: The movement is recognizable to things I have been interested in in the past. It’s hard to decouple it from the space and the costuming – very loud elements. The costume – we have these gold sequined masks on. We look a little ominous but also sparkly. We are kind of nonhuman, a little otherworldly. It feels as though there are characters underneath that have some insight or relationship or special connection to the sun. Our bodies are reflective – sequins are all over ourselves.

It will be a combination or set and scored movement. It will be 20-30 minutes in length.

JR: Okay, I am going to make a quick shift here in the interview since you are talking about unison. Lauren contributed to a piece on the blog a few years ago about unison. Let me pull it up, and share a bit of it here:

As a choreographer, why unison? What do you love about it? How does it amplify, magnify, heighten, enlarge?

I love unison because it is virtuosic and impossible at the same time. The detailed nature of the unison material, the speed at which we do it, and executing it in silence is a difficult human feat. Related to virtuosity and difficulty, unison is inherently a high risk performance situation. There’s something beautiful about the performers taking a leap of faith together, trusting each other to jump on a fast moving train at the same time and stay there for a long time. This elicits a special energy in live performance between the audience and the performers, a shared understanding of the risks taken in real time. The unison is deep listening made visible.

I love unison because it is the best way we have found to amplify very small actions.

JR: Galen, any thoughts after hearing the quote and connecting with your relationship with Lauren? What resonates?

Galen: When we were just describing the movement…I wouldn’t say the movement is virtuosic. But the virtuosity is in the memorizing of the super long, detailed sequences.

Also the idea of deep listening, which for me deep listening is a practice developed by musician/composer Pauline Oliveros. Pauline’s idea of deep listening is a way to listen to anything, any soundscape, and hearing it as if every moment is delicious, and hearing everything at the same time. The heartbeat, the plane overhead, someone having a conversation with me, the rustle of my clothes. This feels relevant to the work we are doing now.

Deep listening has also translated to me to deep looking at the world – including light and shadow and color. Seeing details. Noticing reflections. Things I might generally tune out.

The experience of moving in unison is a heightened awareness. Moments when we diverge by accident or on purpose – end up being beautiful. They might be mundane or glossed over, but within this quiet unison become profound.

JR: What do you think of the literalness of moving in unison together – after a year of pandemic life when we have barely been able to move in time with other dancers?

Lauren: There are two sensations I missed a lot. One of them is moving in unison. There is a matching of frequencies, when you are really with somebody. There is just some wave that you ride. It is a fun feeling to be in agreement with someone, most of the time. And of course there are some fun surprises. I have missed that sensation.

Then the other piece I have missed is the slowing down. I am interested in speed in general. I like the fast, and that is a fun challenge for me. I know that space. Working with Galen, he is so patient. I think it is connected to this idea of deep looking. He helps me slow down and pay attention a bit more.

It takes a minute to go from your day into performance into accepting you are watching a dance show….not being on your phone, really seeing what you are looking at. There is a process. I love being in performance when I am asked to slow down.

The idea of speed and the spectrum of speed….

JR: How to locate the work within our current world? Pandemic, homelessness, racial injustice, etc. What does this artwork offer the world or the viewer (ex. a time of respite, a time of community gathering, healing imagery)?

Galen: The idea of real estate, of celestial real estate, there is the question of ownership. The first thing that came for me was the literal question, “How absurd is it to consider ownership of a celestial body?” But the earth is also a celestial body. How do we own it, and take it for granted, constantly.

Lauren: A previous show in this gallery was about water. There was something in there about resources, ownership, access, exploitation. I think it sunk in in some way. Ownership of celestial bodies is a ridiculous question, but not so out of the question. Ownership in space is up for discussion sooner than later!

What has been fun about this process is thinking about how I can decenter myself as a choreographer by asking other artists to go first. Offering a prompt and resources, but getting out of the way and letting them go. That has not been my approach in the past, probably more out of convention. In this way, it has been freeing and exciting to think about what everyone’s contribution is to this project.

Who owns this show? Who claims artistic directorship of it? Some of it is in the language. I am calling myself an organizer of things.

The ownership of intangible ideas – such as capturing the light spectrum, or radiation. Metaphorically, I was thinking more about ownership of talent or ownership of energy, and other artists’ contributions to a process.

Reserve your tickets for Celestial Real Estate here.

CELESTIAL REAL ESTATE AGENCY from Joey Carter on Vimeo.

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Related links:

Artist Profile: Lauren Simpson

Moving Truck: 5 Questions for Lauren Simpson

Dance as Event: An Interview with Lauren Simpson about DANCE EXHIBIT